Theremin

The theremin is an electronic instrument and was invented by the Russian engineer Lev Termen (1896-1993). The instrument had its premiere in 1920 and is today widely regarded as the first electronic instrument.

To play the theremin, you do not touch the instrument. By moving the hand closer and further away from the vertical antenna, you change the pitch. The horizontal antenna serves to control the volume. The theremin uses the heterodyne principle, which means that the audible signal is the result of mixing two basic frequencies. In the case of the theremin, these are two oscillators that produce an ultrasonic sound (undetectable by humans). One has a fixed pitch, the other is variable (by means of the musician's hand). What we hear is the difference between the two basic frequencies.

Vladimir Lenin saw potential in the instrument and sent Termen on a 'promotional tour' in Russia. To show what communism was capable of scientifically-technically, Termen was also allowed to go and demonstrate his invention in England, France and especially Germany. In 1927, Termen ended up in New York. He stayed there until 1938, the year he mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth.  

Termen and his theremin could count on a loyal fan base in the US. Not only musicians and composers, but also scientists and even the US government were interested in both the technical-musical possibilities of the theremin, and the potential of the engineer Termen. Commissioned by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Termen built a metal detector for the Alcatraz jailhouse.   

In 1928, Termen patented the theremin in the US and granted the commercial production rights to build the instrument to the RCA company. The sky-high ambitions went unfulfilled and the story ended in a flop. Apparently, RCA's marketing pitches did not help to market the theremin as an easy-to-play instrument. The musicians who perfectly mastered the playing technique at the time were very thin on the ground. We remember Lucie Bigelow Rosen, Samuel Hoffman and especially Clara Rockmore, Termen's protégé. Not much original music for theremin was composed before World War II. The repertoire consisted mainly of arrangements of well-known classical works, such as "Le Cygne" by Camille Saint-Saëns.

After Termen's departure in 1938, interest in the theremin also disappeared. His efforts to launch the theremin as a new instrument in art music proved vain. But the instrument did not disappear between the folds of history. That we still build and play the theremin today is thanks to two musical genres in which the instrument experienced a revival after World War II: film and popular music.

The theremin debuted in 1945 in the films "Spellbound" and "The Lost Weekend". In both films, the theremin was used as the musical expression for anxiety, stress and "disturbed minds". But the most persistent association is with outer space. The sounds of the theremin (and many other electronic instruments) proved ideal to evoke the infinity of space, (evil) Martians, and flying UFOs. "Rocketship X-M" (1950) was the first sci-fi film to feature a theremin. This was followed by "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951) and "It Came from Outer Space" (1953), among others. The breakthrough in pop music came with "Good Vibrations"' by The Beach Boys (1966). To be fair, though, this was an Electro-Theremin built by Paul Tanner.[1] Later, Frank Zappa, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones), among others, also used the theremin in their music.

The MIM owns two theremins. The one with inventory number 4331 (fig.1) was built between 1957 and 1968, by an employee at the "Studio de Musique Électronique (de Bruxelles)", aka "Studio Apelac". The theremin was assembled according to the guidelines of the German Joachim Winckelmann. In the "Deutsche Radio-Bücherei" series, Winckelmann wrote a 32-page manual on how to build your own theremin at home in 1933. The other theremin (fig.2) was built by the company Big Briar, founded by Robert Moog, the godfather of the synthesiser, in 1978. Moog built his first theremin at the age of 15 and at 19 started his first company, R.A. Moog Co. Initially, he sold separate parts (as DIY kits), and later completely finished instruments.

Text: Wim Verhulst

[1] While the electro-theremin resembled the theremin in timbre, the instrument was conceived differently in terms of construction. On the inside of the instrument was a pitch knob connected by a string to a slider (on the outside). Moving the slider changed the pitch. The presence of frets (like on the guitar) made it easier to play the pitches correctly.